Abstract
Transmission electron microscopy is an invaluable technique to study the detailed structure and the chemical state of materials at unprecedented spatial resolution. In today’s modern electron microscopes, it is possible to tackle problems requiring the highest energy resolution to detect losses down to 70meV, and highest spatial resolution, down to the angstrom level, so that atomic resolved spectroscopy with high spectroscopic sensitivity and resolution can be obtained. This leads to the potential of covering excitation phenomena from the mid-infrared, soft-X-rays and even hard-X-ray regime.
In this presentation, various examples of applications of electron microscopy will be given to highlight how microscopy and spectroscopy are essential to understand the properties of a broad range of materials such as semiconducting nanowires, metallic alloys and functional oxides such as Li-ion batteries and superconductors. I will also show how new instrumentation, provide insight on the phonon excitations of solids.